Tigers release Brennan Boesch

Midway through a spring training game last week, Brennan Boesch exited the game from right field, not even returning to the dugout, but instead trotting directly through the outfield gate toward the Detroit Tigers clubhouse at Joker Marchant Stadium, clearly agitated.

“I’m trying to win a (bleeping) job,” he said to no one in particular, then spent a moment each chatting with hitting coach Toby Harrah and Ramon Santiago’s toddler son to calm down before heading into the locker room.

He was clearly annoyed that he was trying to earn his spot on the team, and unable to do much to do so.

And it’s apparent the Tigers felt a lot the same way, as they released the soon-to-be 28-year-old outfielder on Wednesday, an admission of the fact that they could no longer wait for the tremendous upside Boesch seemingly possesses to manifest itself with production.

“This is one case in which a change of scenery is absolutely for the better,” manager Jim Leyland told reporters in Lakeland, according to the Twitter account of the Detroit News’ Tom Gage.

Since bursting onto the scene as a rookie in the first half of 2010, as a temporary replacement for the injured Magglio Ordonez, the former third-round pick had struggled to live up to the early hype.

He missed the playoffs in 2011 after having thumb surgery late in the season, then faltered in 2012 when he was all-but handed Ordonez’s old spot in right field, hitting just .240 with 12 home runs and 54 RBI.

“You know, Boesch has had a funny career up here, so far. A lot of fame right off the bat, and then almost starving for a while. Good press, bad press. ‘Who’s the real Brennan Boesch?’ He’s gone through a lot so far. It think, sometimes — as I always preach — it takes time. You just can’t make a senior out of a sophomore, whatever you want to say. Who knows?” Leyland said during the Tigers’ caravan in January.

“I think Boesch still has a tremendous upside. I do. Can he relax and take it to the field? We’ll find out. That’s what Spring Training and seasons are all about.”

While Boesch’s starting outfield spot was no longer guaranteed — the Tigers signed Torii Hunter to play right field, and have all but given the left-field job to Andy Dirks — they still tendered him a contract in the offseason, bringing him back to either see if he could recapture that early success, or at least improve his trade value.

Thanks to an injured oblique muscle to start camp, costing him valuable at-bats, he was unable to do either.

He didn’t exactly help his own cause once he got healthy, either. After homering in a minor-league game against Western Michigan University in his first action this spring, he hit just .188 with one extra-base hit in seven subsequent spring games.

Never an above-average defender, he was part of a series of spring miscues in the outfield during that span, as well.

“#Tigers Brennan Boesch not endearing himself today. His defense has been ‘less than acceptable’ to put it mildly,” former pro scout and current MLB.com contributor Bernie Pleskoff tweeted Monday, when he was in Lakeland to watch the Tigers and Mets. He’d hinted on Twitter two days earlier that Boesch should play against the outfielder-poor Mets, as a showcase.

As it turns out, evidently no team wanted Boesch at the current price tag: The Tigers signed him to a $2.3 million contract for the 2013 season, in order to avoid arbitration. They’re responsible for one sixth of that, or just more than $383,000, by releasing him by Wednesday’s deadline.

Having tried unsuccessfully to find a buyer for Boesch, there wasn’t a whole lot of point in keeping him around, and paying him for a bit role, at best. They had said earlier in the offseason that there wasn’t a lot of point in sending him to Triple-A Toledo, and there was already a logjam of left-handed candidates to compete for the left-field job: Dirks, Quintin Berry, Don Kelly. Down the road, the corner outfield spots will likely be manned by two of the team’s top prospects, Nick Castellanos and Avisail Garcia, leaving no clear role for Boesch with the organization.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Journal Register Company. Email him at matt.mowery@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery.